US Spies Use Custom Video Games for Training

Wired reports that the US Defense Intelligence Agency has just acquired three PC-based video games which they will use to train the next wave of analysts. The games are short, but they have branching story lines that change depending on how a trainee reacts to various problems. Quoting: "'It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach,' says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center. Wired.com had an opportunity to play all three games, Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think."

And in these games...

It gets confusing because they all pretend to be medics.

Re:

Navy cryptologic technicians often have often worn yeoman's insignia when at sea.

Names

>Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg,
>

Sounds more like pr0n.

Seriously, video games are a simulation environment. Makes sense to use them as training tools. This is news, why?

Re:Names

Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust

Actually, it sounds like my honeymoon.

Didn't last very long. The honeymoon, I mean. The marriage is still going as of 7:38am, April 24, 2008. I have a feeling death is my only way out now, since my immigrant wife (Eastern Europe,now a citizen) found out about our Second Amendment and RFID technology.

Now, what were we talking about?

Re:Names

>>Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg,
>>
> Sounds more like pr0n.

Or titles for upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal movies.

Re:

Because there are still people out there that think games are for toddlers or young children. They don't understand why adults would want to play them, let alone the fact that they could be educational or used for training.

2.6 Million?

It cost them 2.6 million to get 3 ~90 minute training games made? Hot damn! I need to get me some government contracts.

thinking about it...

The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think. (emphasis added)

Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum! (*)

* I think I think, therefore I think I am!

But seriously, I'm curious as to what part of these games is aimed at improving cognitive skills versus indoctrination? i.e. the difference between "how to THINK" versus "HOW to think."

Re:thinking about it...

That should be: Cogito cogitare, ergo cogito esse. You need to use the infinitive (cogitare, esse) in those cases, not the present active indicative.

Re:thinking about it...

That should be: Cogito cogitare, ergo cogito esse. You need to use the infinitive (cogitare, esse) in those cases, not the present active indicative.

Centurion: Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir!
Centurion: Hail Caesar! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

Branching storylines? Can we have some?

What would it take to get some real branching storylines in games for us ordinary mortals?

That's always been one of my major gripes with most games that have a story: none of your decisions can affect it aside from "Whoops! You failed! Now the world ends!"

...and if someone knows of some such games that do exist, I'd appreciate knowing about them, especially if they're not PC-only ;-)

Dan Aris

Re:

Planescape: Torment. [wikipedia.org] It's a PC game, but it's old enough where I believe you should be able to run it on a modern Linux box in WINE without too much trouble. If you're into games with stories you can actually affect the narrative itself in dramatic ways

Re:

PS2 game... Way of the Samurai

You can beat the game in a couple hours. The fun comes from playing it over and over again making different choices. Played that game a lot... and never did find all the endings. Storyline differs drastically based on your ch

Start game

You wake up and the room is dark. _

Re:Start game

You wake up and the room is dark. _

> Open eyes

You can't see any eyes to open.

Re:Start game

You wake up and the room is dark. _

> Open eyes

You can't see any eyes to open.

> Search for light switch.

You have been eaten by a grue.

Neat!

The future of cloak and dagger involves an actual copy of Cloak and Dagger. [wikipedia.org]

out of curiousity...

...what are the eight principles/questions of intelligence analysis, as mentioned in the article?

Spies?

These video games ara not for spies, they are for intelligence analysts - NOT the same thing. I am an all-source military intelligence analyst and instructor by trade and I do not do any spying. Spies are collectors; they do not need training in critical thinking, analysis of competing hypotheses, logical fallacies, biases, ad infinitum. Anyone at the DIA who calls himself a spy has watched too many Bond movies and/or is just trying to impress chicks. And the authors of this article should have known better. This is why we get new analysts who are disappointed they're not going to be James Bond. Hell, they're not even going to be Jack Ryan.

Oh that's great...

...our next national intelligence estimate will state that the #1 threat to the USA is a grue.

Unimaginative Militarist Morons

The names of the games:

Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust

good Grief - they sound like titles to REALLY BAD MOVIES, the kind with some violent dork like Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris in it.

Those kinds of titles are so lame, my friends and I no longer use them as they are utterly generic, so we call them "Adjective/Noun Movies".

RS: "What did you do this weekend?"
OldFriend: "Saw a movie."
RS: "which one?"
OF: "Adjective Noun with Steven Seagal."
RS: "Oh. How bad was it?"
OF: "OK. Lots of shit blowed up. The Ingenue had a really nice rack. Oh, and a bad guy's head exploded after he picked his nose. That was funny. And the ingenue had a REALLY nice rack."
RS: sounds terrible.
OF: It was. nice rack, though.

Whenever I see a modifier noun title, I get VERY suspicious, and if the words suggest some kind of violence or suddeness, then it's sure to be a stinker. I mean, when would we EVER see some violent POS called "Fluffy Tufts"?

RS

Re:How to Think

The way we learn has changed; probably irrevocably. We are now in a post-literary world. We increasingly think more visually and spatially, and less sequentially (thus the reduction of news to 30-second bites, but in a multitude of them). We learn by seeing and doing, and not by reading and hearing. It stands to reason that our teaching methods will have to change, as well.

Re:How to Think

I don't think the way we learn has changed, just the technology now makes it possible to do more visual and spatial instruction.

When all you have is a chalkboard, all you can do is a chalk talk. Now that tools are there for rapid content creation, things should change slowly.

The US was lauded years back for great hands-on engineering labs. Now that you can do virtual labs, maybe this will take a hit? As someone who has taught with both, I can tell you anecdotally that hands-on real-world wins by far...

And I thought spatial reasoning was valued as a higher level of thought? Or is that different from learning spatially?

Sadly engineering and science profs are rarely given formal instruction on educational methods. One thing that I did pick up in my limited instruction was that people learn visually and sequentially, so you need to cater to both (read+equation AND graphs+figures). Usually the visual learners get left out, so now they have a better chance in some cases...

Re:Post-Literary World

That would explain the general decline in US literacy all right.

I doubt that independent studies would confirm your hypothesis regarding changing styles of learning. I've not seen or heard of any accepted study which demonstrated any fundamental shift ot

Re:How to Think

For what part of human history have we ever learned by reading? Most people couldn't read for most of human history. It has always been much easier to learn something by doing it, rather than just reading a book about it. Don't get me wrong. Reading is important, and is useful for figuring certain things out. It's really good for passing on ideas and information. However, it is not the best way to learn how to do anything. Do you learn how to program by reading about it, or by doing it? Do you learn how to draw a picture by reading about it? Do you learn how to drive by reading about it? If I want to know, for instance, how to change the padding using CSS, I can read about it. If I don't actually go and do it, there's a much smaller chance that I will remember it when I need to do it again. If I go ahead and actually implement it, and type it out, I am much better able to retain the information.